Well, to continue our recent expos'e on The Best Houses of All Time in L.A., here is number seven on the list. At one point this home by Architect, John Lautner had fallen into disrepair as a rental property. It was then purchased by German book publisher, Benedikt Taschen of Taschen Books. The Chemosphere house was renovated by Silver Lake firm Escher GuneWardena, who are said to have updated the windows and floors, but otherwise tried to retain the original feel of the house. This house has also had a Hollywood career as a film location appearing in the TV series The Outer Limits and the movie Body Double. Facsimiles of the house have appeared in the Simpsons, Cars and the movie version of Charlie's Angels to name a few.

See the Yanda House for the Kansas City relationship to the Chemosphere.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Well, it seems like we have been looking to the LA Times a lot lately, but I could not resist adding Cindy Epping'sEichler Home, which has recently been in a both Apartment Therapy and the LA Times. KCMODERN loves seeing these original kitchen designs still being used. It appears that Cindy's dog, Ruby is the star of the Times photo shoot.

Joseph Eichler was a California home builder who built Modern homes and who's career closely paralleled Kansas City builder, Don Drummond's. Both builders used the same architect and sometimes even the same plans. But more on that later.

OK, so it may not be a "Modern" house with a capital M, but it is number six of the The Best Houses of All Time in L.A. mentioned earlier. I consider myself a modernist, but this Greene and Greene house really influenced me in my early career. And while it's plan is not Modern it does represent a movement towards a new architecture and away from the traditional styles of the day. It has been labeled as, The Ultimate Bungalow by recent authors. Movie buffs may also recognize this house and its garage from the Back to the Future Movies.